So, it has been 60 days since we got back from our winter travels and first visit to REV in Decatur, IN, with our new RV, detailed in the last post. Time flies by when one is having fun and even when one is working without time for any fun.
Such (the latter) has been our experience in the last two months. We have been working frantically to get the house ready to put it officially on the market and list it with a Realtor. The first few weeks since our arrival it was a mixture of still cold weather and sometimes with daily rain, or both. However, slowly but surely we got the house ready (enough) to list it. We interviewed several Realtors and narrowed it down to Century 21, Engel & Volkers and Compass Realty. Shay Scaffide won the bid and we went with her. However, as go the best laid plans 'of mice and men' (is that gender discrimination?) Mary was fired shortly thereafter, because Shay Scaffide kept putting in erroneous information as to the listing, and apparently did not take kindly to constantly having to be corrected, even after having been corrected once before (for the same errors), so she told Mary... You're FIRED! "I'M cancelling your listing." Mary says that is the FIRST time that she has been fired, especially by someone that she is paying. Oh well, it was probably a good thing, because later we found out that Real Estate is not Shay's primary work. She is apparently also the Director of Activities for the Town of Alpine, or so we heard from other Realtor's in the area that say that her Real Estate work is secondary to her other work.
This is the location of the house.
Above, when we left in November 2022 with the F350 and the 2021 Montana that Bill hated, which we traded in for the Discovery 44B in December 2022.
Too bad, but though we lost some time with that mistake, we feel that we have finally found a good brokerage to work with. Ashley Cranney and Mandy Jack work as a team for Assist-2-Sell, Inc. which just last year moved into Afton, and by chance, as the only Assist 2 Sell brokerage in Wyoming. They are just 20 miles away from the house. They provide the exact SAME services that all the other brokerages do, but charge as little as 1.5% commission for Selling. IF a Realtor from another brokerage (other than Assist 2 Sell) brings the Buyer, then they'll get 2.5 percent, representing a maximum of just 4%, versus 5% or 6% that other brokerages (like C21, Compass and Engel & Volkers charge. During the contracting and listing period with them, we have both been most pleased with their competence and enthusiasm to work with us, and feel confident that IF it does not sell THIS YEAR, before we head out for our winter travels, it is only because the market is so crazy, due to the Biden Administration doing everything it can to destroy our nation. IF that were the case, we feel confident that waiting until next year (after the winter) will only bring about positive change to the property values overall, and will definitely sell then, and at an even better price. Mary bought this house well two years ago, and even with the expenses to restore it to its former splendor, it is now valued far above what it can bring. So, if it does not sell this year, we feel certain it will sell next year. We will be renting an RV lot at a very nice RV Resort for a modest monthly rent of just $575 per month, with a yearly lease, so we do not NEED to sell the house right away, as every month the principal decreases by about $850, so that will make for an even greater cash out, when it does sell.
Bill, as a Florida real estate licensee for many years, created a website (as he does for all our properties we sell), which details the condition of the house when we bought it, and shows by means of a pictorial essay each and every project we have done to restore it, making it truly 'turn-key', so that a Buyer can simply move in and only has to do any projects that they choose to make it their own. You can see the website at: www.golfchalet4sale.com Assist2Sell is not permitted to advertise 3rd-party websites, due to MLS rules, they say, so we made up our own signs to promote Buyers to check out our website, to be able to see all the work that went into restoring the house professionally, as that too gives it added value.
Now that the house is under the watchful eye of Ashley and Mandy and Assist-2-Sell, we can take a step back and just go to the house weekly to mow the lawn, fertilize it when needed, check the sprinkler use based on the humidity, and tidy up around the house. About a week after it was listed we asked Ashley to have an Open House for the other Realtors, to expose them to its availability, should they have a buyer for it. We ordered a platter of pinwheel sandwiches, and chips, cookies and candies, along with refreshments and ice, so they could spend some time viewing and enjoying the home. Ashley invited the Realtors but also posted the Open House for Buyers in general, and a few showed up. No one has even made an offer yet, but it's still barely into the 3rd week of the listing. The house listed, we were then free to start working on all our other projects.
The next most important project was to get the RV to Premier Truck Center in Idaho Falls (the closest Freightliner dealer) which is 97 miles away. If you remember reading on our last post, that despite having spent three weeks at the REV Service Center, and having complained that the air bags were not inflating as they should (evidenced by the gauge showing one always much lower than the other) they said they checked them and found NOTHING wrong with them... MORE LIES. By the time we got to Afton, 20 miles away from home, the air bag issue had completely given out and the frame was bouncing on the chassis. We barely got it home and from there we decided to rent a lot at the RV Park and stay at the RV, so the house could always be clean and ready to show, at any time. There it sat, with us living in it, while we got the house finished and listed. So, now that the house was listed, getting the RV fixed was the next most important thing, first so that we could be ready to leave when we wanted to, and also to be able to go on short outings, if we just wanted to get away for awhile. Bill called Freightliner corporate who arranged for a tow truck to get us to the Freightliner dealer in Idaho Falls on Monday, July 25th. They sent a 'Low-Boy' to tow us, such as used for tall cranes and other equipment.
That was a spectacle at the RV Park, as all these folks here with big rig RVs have often wondered IF they break down and can't drive their rigs, HOW they would handle a tow. So many of them came out to watch the Low-Boy load us. It was interesting to say the least. See the photos and videos.
Once at the Freightliner they had a ticket ready as they were called by Freightliner corporate, but couldn't take us in until Tuesday. On Tuesday we left early in the Ford F350 to go to Cody, Wyoming (a 248 mile trip which took over 5 hours) going through Yellowstone National Park. Traffic was atrocious, but we managed to see Elk, Moose, Bear (cub), Bison and herds of tourists. So, why did we have to go that far, to Cody?
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We had bought the 2018 Ford F350 to pull the 2021 Montana fifth-wheel, which we traded 12/28/2022 for the 2023 Fleetwood Discovery LXE 44B. Since Texas, to Florida, Indiana and back home, we have been towing the F350. The RV will tow it without any problem, but just the same it is a whole lot heavier than a smaller vehicle to tow. Originally, we had bought the 2022 Ford Explorer to have it for flat-towing should we ever get another RV, but then we found out that the Ford Explorer stopped being 'flat-towable' in 2019, which was a shock to us as we had towed our 20215 Explorer before that.
During our winter travels we also decided we would be better off selling our WY house and buying a winter house back in FL, but traveling back to WY and the Western states in Spring, Summer and Fall. However, the F350 would not fit in the garages of The Villages, so we figured that we would be best selling the F350, which is a great truck, though too much for the use we'd be giving it, and ordering a new 2024 Ranger. Then our plans fell apart again when we found out that the 2024 Ford Ranger will no longer be 'flat-towable' either. So, we had to try to find a new 2023 Ranger Lariat that had the equipment we wanted and a new vehicle warranty (3yr/36,000 miles) and in a color to match the RV, which would be either med grey or silver, or dark blue.
So we went to our closest Ford dealer, Caribou Ford in Soda Springs, Idaho, where we had already purchased the 2022 Explorer and the 2018 F350. The Sales Manager, Chad Corbett, was willing to do a dealer trade if he could find one that would work for us, but said all he could give us for the F350 was $41,000 in trade for a new one. So we couldn't make a deal. At home we started looking for 2023 Rangers online and found one that had 90% of all we wanted in it and it was Iconic Silver to boot.
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So, Bill called them on the Saturday before the Monday that they would be coming for the RV and over negotiated back and forth with a salesman and a sales manager, and was able to get $48,250 for our F350 trade... $7,250 more than the Caribou Ford Sales Manager, Chad Corbett was willing to pay for getting their own F350 back. So, that's why on Tuesday, July 26, while our RV was being worked on for the air bags, we drove over 500 miles... to trade our F350 for a new 'flat-towable' 2023 Ford Ranger Lariat, which by the way cost $48,635 vs the $48,250 trade allowance, left a trade difference (taxable) of $385.00. Not a bad deal.
Though we had never even test driven a Ranger, we LOVE our new Ranger. Even Roxy likes it, because instead of lying on the seat and having the footwell to fall into, she gets a padded bed made up on the flooring, from where she can look out the windshield between our seats see both of us (at her beck and call). Then, by the time we got back to Freightliner they were already closed, but the next morning they told us that our RV was completely fixed. They said that the line that feeds the airbags was erroneously placed touching the turbo and it heated the line until it burned a hole in it, which allowed the air to escape.
With the RV fixed and the trucks traded, our last mission, as long as we were already there, was to get baseplates put on the Ranger, so we can flat-tow it, and to get a tonneau cover for the Ranger truck bed so we can put away shopping and keep it dry, since the space in the cabin is rather limited. Not many RV shops in Idaho Falls will work in baseplate installation (according to them due to the liability), however, No Limit RV Repair and Fabrication, at 6724 W. Overland Dr., in Idaho Falls (literally a block away from Freightliner) was very proficient on the requirements for ordering the parts and performing the installation correctly, as so much is riding on that connection. IF you need RV repairs or specialty work such as baseplate installation, call No Limit RV Repair & Fabrication, and ask for Payton.
On Thursday, July 27, 2023, we were able to return to the RV Park with no issues and with a lot of different things accomplished. Now, we have pretty much accomplished all our tasks and only have to wait for the parts to get in to finish the tonneau cover and baseplate installations. Next, we can work on getting the two warehouse storages organized and decide what will be going with us and what will be left in storage until we buy a house in FL. Hopefully, at some point (maybe in September when the weather cools off a bit, we'll also be able to take of for a week or two outing.
So that catches us up for the last two months. See you next post.
